The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 39: Police Domestic Violence Ohio to California road trip

"Ha ha ha I can't believe you got'em!  You expert, rootin'-tootin', eagle-eyed, Goth-loving marksman! I love it! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!!!" Joker, Under the Red Hood (2010)

Domestic violence is the most prevalent and least controlled crime in America.  In 1987, the Illinois legislature finally mandated Police Officers, at a minimum, write a report when going to a domestic disturbance type situation.  Up until just before Covid I was working with Officers who started their careers back before this mandate.  I'm sure you remember how the response of Officers used to be next to nothing other than a vague warning that they'd do something if they came back a second time that night.

Tracy Chapman, who's enjoying a resurgence due to Luke Combs covering Fast Car, had another song on that ground-breaking album called Behind the Wall.  The lyrics encapsulate much of the perception, true or  not, of the police response to domestic violence.  It's also been known that domestic abuse amongst families of Police Officers is at least as common as the general public and most likely vastly underreported  due to a variety of factors.

So, it comes as little surprise former Officer John Snowling, drove from Ohio to California to attempt to gun down his ex-wife.  Snowling, was a retired Ventura Police Sergeant.  Marie Snowling filed for divorce in December 2022.  As we all know women who are battered, who eventually do leave their abusive husbands, are very much at risk to be murdered.  Snowling tracked her down at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, about 50 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, and shot 9 people including her. Three people died and six others were injured before Snowling was killed by law enforcement. The fatal victims have been identified as John Leehey, 67, Tonya Clark, 49, and Glen Sprowl, 53.  After entering and shooting Marie and others, Snowling apparently ran out of ammo or had a weapon malfunction, exited the bar and went back to his vehicle to get more guns and/or ammo.  The Officers confronted him outside at his car. 

“He just had very normal career, nothing really else to report,” Ventura Police Cmdr. Sarah Heard told reporters.

In military parlance, this is known as NSTR (Nothing Significant to Report), which is laughable because I wonder (and in reality know) how Snowling treated domestic abuse victims when he was on the job.  Snowling worked from 1986 to 2014.  So his career encapsulates the generation which was supposed to respond and actually try and do something about domestic abuse.

Again we see, the poisonous fruits of the NRA and Republican push against Gun Control.  Marie Snowling was most likely a long term victim of spousal abuse.  That she finally managed to free herself, file for divorce, is an unforgivable sin to Republicans who are beginning to push back against easier divorce in the perpetual rightwing war on women.  Of course, Republicans and the Gun Industry are also trying to denude firearms restraining orders.  And Snowling was, of course, able to purchase multiple guns because there really is no controls on guns and when a shooting like this happens Republicans simply XIT out their Thoughts & Prayers and move on to the next NRA funded dinner to rake in more blood-soaked campaign donations.

So, anyway the Good Officers who responded to the Bad Officer, shot and killed him and as the Joker said...  Everybody Still Loses...

Do violent domestic abusers have Second Amendment rights? What part of Shall Not Be Infringed don't you get, gun grabber????

When the topic of gun control comes up, one of the most disingenuous arguments Gun Nuts make is Just Enforce the Laws already on the Books!  They don't actually mean it because while they say this, Gun Humping psychos, Racists, the Firearms Industry lobbyists, and Republicans challenge and remove existing gun laws.

Suddenly, thanks to the Supremacist Court the only gun laws that can exist are whatever regulations existed in the early 1700's.  And next year the White Supremacist Court is going to take on the thorny issue of whether violent domestic abuse perpetrators can be denied their blessed and unassailable Second Amendment Rights;

Zackey Rahimi was not a responsible gun owner. He exhibited the type of behavior that identified him as a danger to both the public and those closest to him. In February 2020, Rahimi agreed to be subject to a protective order after allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Between December 2020 and January 2021, he was involved in five shootings. But despite acknowledging that Rahimi is “hardly a model citizen” – an understatement – the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in deciding United States v. Rahimi recently struck down the federal law prohibiting possession of firearms by people subject to domestic violence protection orders. In short, the 5th Circuit ruled that prohibiting abusers like Rahimi from possessing firearms is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. In doing so, the court sided with abusers.  

This decision, which applies in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, is just the latest alarming development in a new era of Second Amendment cases. The new test for such cases, established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, requires the government to show that modern gun violence prevention laws are relevantly similar to historical laws.

It's unbelievable until you realize that rightwingers don't talk about this because it undermines their efforts to flood the Nation with as many firearms as possible, while also rolling back, eliminating and undoing every regulation they can at every level of government.  And no this is not hyperbole the denouement of Republicans and Gun Nuts is to have no law on the books except the supreme law of the land and in their Second Amendment is says Shall Not Be Infringed.

Of course, one problem with all of this is the rightwing misunderstanding of where laws come from.  Laws are creations of Men Humans and Society but, for years rightwingers have clung to the philosophical nonsense that laws are these immutable things, perfectly existing, somewhere nebulously in the cosmos, having been written into the fabric of Space/Time by the Almighty.  Thus, Shall Not Be Infringed and gun rights are god's law.  But, as in the case of domestic abusers, conservatives want everyone to know they have lots of guns because if you upset them, by being LGBTQ, or use their driveway to turn around, or look suspicious, why then the law grants them the right to gun you down.

So, violent men will continue to be able to exercise their Dude Rights to murder women who reject them, break off relationships, or have the temerity to live.

On Friday night, 35-year-old Ashley Yates was shot and killed in the parking lot of Westport Village, where she worked. Her family tells WHAS11 she was a longtime victim of an abusive relationship. 

The suspect, who the family says was an on-and-off romantic partner, has since died. Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) believes he died by suicide Saturday night, a day after the murder. 

"If you need help, ask for it. It doesn't have to be you," Yates brother said. "Ashley had every reason to leave the person who did this, and her life was threatened before, but she was stuck in a cycle and kept going back to this individual.

And sadly, most Police don't believe Domestic Violence is a real crime.  Anyway.. women as separate entities don't exist in the Constitution, and for years married women could hardly be considered real people anyway, and their rights are to be found nowhere.  This Supremacist Court is fully invested in removing any and all protections for Women in this country.  I guarantee this Supreme Court will agree Domestic Abusers and Mass Shooters should be able to have guns, to gun down those broads who dump them.  Republicans hate you and want you to die and next years' SCOTUS Ruling on US v. Rahimi will continue that trend, Guns are most often used by their owner to commit suicide after that person has killed their so-called loved ones.

Shall Not Be Infringed: Red Flag Gun laws don't work and won't be enforced; which is exactly why they were adopted in the first place

It's every Man's Right to Murder his
Wife or even some random women 
He's Stalking. It's his Dude Process.

Anthony Wayne McRae won't be remembered for more than a week or so but the 8 people he shot before killing himself will be forgotten by rightwing gun nuts even before that. (Some rightwing gun nuts on Elon Musk Twitter will declare McRae is a Democrat because he's black and add him to their phony list of all shooters being Democrats.)

But, what the Mass Murder Firearms Industry will never forget is how each of these mass shootings boosts their sales of Guns and Stock Prices!

Besides screaming CHICAGO! CHICAGO! CHICAGO! (which we know is a dog whistle for Blacks!) after every mass shooting, Republican gun humpers shout 'Just enforce the laws already on the books!', then Republicans go out and challenge those laws and get a Republican appointed Judge to declare Gun Laws are Unconstitutional.

Repeat as Necessary.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals citing the SCOTUS Bruen Ruling declared Domestic Abusers can not have their guns taken from them via court order.  Because as the Supremacist Court ruled only Gun Laws in effect at the ratification of the 2nd Amendment pass Constitutional Muster.

In 1996 the Lautenberg Amendment to the 1968 Gun Control Act denied abusive violent husbands from keeping or buying firearms after domestic violence convictions.  So, this would seem to be one of the areas of Gun Regulation which seemed to be uncontroversial.  And while this may seem uncontroversial to you, to the Firearms Industrial Complex and their co-dependent co-conspirators Republicans this is a problem.  Because a large component of firearms purchases are made by abusive men to kill their so-called loved ones.  Abusive Men are the backbone of the Republican Party.

The father of the Club Q shooter, when told of his son's crimes, first response was to be relieved about his son's sexuality, "They started telling me about the incident, a shooting… And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I got scared, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, phew… I am a conservative Republican.  I praised him for violent behaviour really early. I told him it works. You’ll get immediate results.  My opinion about gays is that it is not okay”.

Remember Republicans are now wearing AR-15 lapel pins, because they identify with the weapon used repeatedly in Mass Shootings and not with Americans or even the abstract 2nd Amendment, they identify with the physical weapons.  Because besides having a large stable of Stochastic Terrorists destabilizing the Nation and making normal Americans ready for a Rightwing Strongman Authoritarian government, the Republican political plan, is to have enough men ready and willing to murder Americans and make the Nation ungovernable except by them.  Fascism isn't coming it's already here.  Be prepared. 

Bobby Hull's Passing

Another Chicago Legend passed away.  Bobby Hull, The Golden Jet, former Chicago Blackhawk great and the player who perfected the slap shot in Hockey died on Janurary 30th.  Hockey is a strange sport in that families often produce multiple very good players as Dennis Hull (The Silver Jet) played many years as a good scorer and Hull's son Brett is 5th all-time in NHL goals and arguably had the best 3 season goal scoring stretch in Hockey history during the 1989-1991 seasons potting 228 goals in 231 games.  But, to call Bobby Hull's legacy complicated is to miss the net.

On the ice, Hull and his slap shot brought a Stanley Cup to Chicago in 1961, took the team to the Cup Finals three more times, scored over 600 goals in the NHL and another 300+ in the WHA.  But, when the Blackhawks Wirtz family failed to pay Hull in 1972 he went to the World Hockey Association, an alternate pro-league, which also drew other great players, like the immortal Gordie Howe and even The Great One Wayne Gretzky as an 18 year old in 1979, before being absorbed into the NHL in 1980.

I've always felt that to the Millennials and Zoomers that the WHA in Hockey and the ABA in Basketball must seem like such ancient anachronisms with the clout, power, money, media saturation, and worldwide reach the NBA and NHL have these days.  

But, unfortunately for Hull fans, Bobby didn't just use his immense physical strength on the ice as he was known to repeatedly beat up women.  I'm going to discount the things Hull supposedly said during an interview with The Moscow Times in the late 1990's because anyone who takes Russian media at face value is either incredibly naive or a willing dupe and ends up advancing Russian War Crimes and Imperialism.

But, the spousal abuse was well documented and known even back int he 1960's when Joanne McKay was spotted in Chicago wearing large sunglasses just like Jacquelin Kennedy... except it wasn't high fashion, as much as covering up her black eyes.  There's also the infamously documented incident in 1987 when he beat up a Police Officer who stopped him from beating up a his wife at that time Deborah.  Based on seeing the abuse Bobby Hull gave to Joanne McKay his daughter Michelle is a longtime advocate and legal counsel for abused and battered women. 

I'm sure the NHL and Blackhawks will have some sort of ceremony but, I hope it's a subdued one to "honor" his hockey achievements and not Bobby Hull.